European anti-tourism groups plan June 15 disruptions

Driven by rising rents, crowds and what many see as neighbourhood degradation, activists are calling to continue the kinds of protests that erupted last summer

- LISA ABEND

TRAVELLERS TO EUROPE, mark your calendars (and bring your raincoats). On June 15, activist groups across southern Europe are planning to stage protests against tourism. Although the precise form of those demonstrations has not been decided, it's a pretty safe bet that water guns will be involved.

At workshops held in Barcelona that brought together about 120 activists from Venice, Lisbon, Palermo, Italy, and a dozen other cities, leaders of the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification, called for a coordinated day of actions to raise awareness about what they called "the urgent need to limit the growth of tourism." The tactics discussed included marches, picketing at airports, obstructing tourists' entry to historic sites and blockading tour buses.